Dem
47
GOP
53
Wednesday morning, if Zohran Mamdani wins in New York City, there will be much wringing of hands and rending of garments about how socialism is taking over and will ruin America. Dark days are ahead of us. That may be true, but the case study used will be wrong. Yes, Mamdani probably will create a new city job, Commissioner of Groceries, to run five supermarkets, but that is small (and probably moldy) potatoes. However, the place where socialism is thriving like never before is at the federal level, with the charge being led by Socialist-in-Chief Donald J. Trump.
Trump already had the government buy 10% of Intel. Remember, the classic definition of socialism is government ownership of the means of production. Socialist Trump went where no Democratic president ever dared to tread. This is not a good idea because the president can then pressure a company into making bad business decisions for political reasons. For example, if the president strongly favors some candidate in an important primary, he could go to the governor and say: "If you endorse my chosen candidate, I will get Intel to build a factory in your state." Intel may not need or want that factory and the workforce there may be all wrong for what the factory needs, so Intel may have to waste a couple of billion dollars on a useless factory it doesn't want and which makes no business sense. With capitalism, companies don't waste billions of dollars building factories they don't want.
Now there is a new case study that should be used to discuss the "evils" of socialism Wednesday morning. Trump has made a deal with the companies that own Westinghouse Electric, which builds nuclear reactors. They are Cameco, a Canadian mining and refining company that is the world's largest supplier of fuel for nuclear reactors, and Brookfield Asset Management, a Canadian-American global asset manager that buys up companies and actually runs them for the profits. Its ticker code is (naturally) BAM! The deal is complicated, but in short, the federal government will give Westinghouse Electric $80 billion to build a couple of nuclear reactors (to power all the data centers the tech companies need for AI). In return, if all goes well, in 2029, the U.S. government will get 20% of the shares of the company. It will then (partially) own the means of production in two key industries: chip manufacturing and energy production. Socialism in action! Compared to this scale, NYC owning five grocery stores is peanuts.
Here too, politics could interfere with good business decisions. Most people don't want to live near a nuclear reactor, particularly if they are old enough to remember the 2011 nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima reactor in Japan (which required the evacuation of 164,000 nearby residents), the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine (which caused an estimated $700 billion in damage) and the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, the worst nuclear accident in American history. So Trump could take over Times Square by eminent domain and then order Westinghouse to build a nuclear reactor on the site. Take that, socialist New York! Of course, if there is an accident, the value of Trump Tower might go down a bit, but punishing New Yorkers for not voting for him would make it worthwhile. Needless to say, left to their own devices, Westinghouse's lawyers would insist on building all reactors in isolated areas to minimize the company's liability should something go wrong eventually.
So when you hear about the evils of socialism Wednesday morning, keep a keen eye out for the keyword "Westinghouse." But if you miss it, that is not necessarily an indication that you need to see an eye doctor. (V)